


The Great Escape

by Helis_von_Askir



Category: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-20
Updated: 2021-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-16 16:09:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 15,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29578683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Helis_von_Askir/pseuds/Helis_von_Askir
Summary: What if Lee had been down on New Caprica when the Cylons showed up?
Relationships: Lee "Apollo" Adama/Anastasia "Dee" Dualla
Comments: 8
Kudos: 10





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> First of all, no fat Apollo, because Dee would have put her foot down way sooner. And no, Pegasus doesn't get destroyed because they needed the soundstage for the Cylon living room, it’s staying in on piece. Ups, spoiler alert! ;-) And there will also be no Final Five. Never was a fan of that.
> 
> Boy, took me ages to finish this. Probably because of my weird writing style where I start a hundred stories and then write a little bit here and a little bit there, working my way through all of them before starting over again.

The sky was overcast but at least it wasn’t raining. On New Caprica that counted as a good day. And still most of the Colonials were glad to be down here, which Lee found hard to fathom as he looked outside the raptor Lt. Erin Silver, call-sign Scarlett on account of her hair, was guiding over the tent city to land at the outskirts of what was supposed to be a city.

“Baltar is taking his sweet time building those houses he keeps promising.” Scarlett pointed out as she put the raptor down.

“Yes, he is.” Lee agreed. Baltar was taking his sweet time with everything. For some reason he thought having ordered the settlement had been enough to fulfil his duty as president, after that he hadn’t done much of anything.

And the man wondered why Lee kept hoarding whatever he could on Pegasus. If he were to hand it over to Baltar it would only end up squandered away to his cronies and the black market. The civilians down here got what was agreed on, nothing more. Lee didn’t care what Baltar would threaten him with at this oh so important meeting, he wouldn’t give Baltar anything.

“Keep an eye out, Scarlett.” Lee said as he stepped outside the raptor. Gaeta was already waiting for him and the lieutenant, former lieutenant, he needed to remember that, looked rather worn and harried. No surprise as the main task of governing had fallen to him pretty much right after the ground-breaking ceremony.

“Will do, Sir.” She replied. Keeping an eye out was their little code for check up on certain things that were known to just a handful of people. “Have fun.”

“Hilarious.” Lee shot back and walked towards Gaeta. “How long will I have to wait this time?”

Gaeta looked apologetic. “I tried to tell him that that tactic doesn’t work on you, but he insists that it shows that he’s in charge, Commander. Maybe if we could get started now, the meeting might go faster later.”

Lee sighed. He liked Gaeta, but not enough for what Baltar wanted from him. “I need my resources for my own people, Felix.”

“I know, but rumour has it you have more than you need, Commander.” Gaeta pointed out as they walked to where Colonial One was parked.

“Rumours,” Lee echoed. “You have anything more solid than rumours?”

“I know how much the fleet produces and I know how much comes down into our stores, the numbers don’t add up.” Gaeta pointed out.

Lee gave the other man a long look. “Have you considered that that has nothing to do with the Pegasus or Galactica but with Baltar’s so-called friends? Vice-President Zarek has his hands deep in the black market and we both know it.” He didn’t mention that Pegasus produced more than was officially known, but he and his father had agreed a long time ago that certain things were better not told to President Baltar.

And Lee wasn’t even lying, he still had an eye on that and knew just how much they got their hands on, and it was thankfully not so much to cause real shortages among the civilians. But as long as they didn’t get overboard, they let them do their thing. They knew what would happen if they did.

Gaeta made a pained face. “I know that, Sir, and I frankly don’t think President Baltar will do anything to change the current setup. He just wants to be seen to be doing something.”

“That’s new. Did he run out of pretty young woman to fawn over him?” Lee wanted to know.

“No, but the Chief, I mean Galen Tyrol and his union are making noise about the conditions of the workers.” Gaeta said.

“And he wants to distract everyone from that.” Lee nodded. “Very well, I’ll wait an hour, if he hasn’t time for this farce by then I’m off. I have a ship to run, no matter how unimportant people down here might think that is these days.”

Gaeta gave him a grateful smile. “Thank you, Sir.”

He should have made that half an hour then he might have gotten off in time, but as it was he had still fifteen minutes to go when the first Cylon raider flew over New Caprica.

“Lt. Silver, get the raptor and hide it in the canyons, right now.” He ordered over his comm while he ducked into the nearest tent. He couldn’t be found, the toaster would stop at nothing to get whatever information they could out of him.

“Way ahead of you, Sir.” Scarlett replied.

“Good, and stay there, we’ll come and get you.” Lee informed her.

Admiral Adama had feared that this day would come and he, Roslin, Lee and Tigh had sat down in the early days of the settlement and come up with several plans on what to do then. For now, Lee just hoped that the fleet would jump to safety, because they were so badly undermanned that they couldn’t put up a fight against even one basestar and Lee had to assume there were more than one in orbit by now.

“Commander!” He heard Roslin call and he hurried into her school tent. “How did they find us?”

Lee shook his head. “I don’t know, but I need to get rid of this uniform and then we need to go to work. We need to buy the Admiral some time. Because for some reason it doesn’t look like they want to massacre us right away.”

“We’ve got some clothes down in the tunnels.” Roslin informed him. “You know, sometimes I hate it when I’m right.”

Lee followed her to the hidden entrance behind the chalkboard. The tunnels and caverns had been excavated while setting up the outline of the city, without the knowledge of Baltar or anyone in his administration. The admiral had considered the risk too great and classified it all as military matter. “We all told Baltar it was a bad idea, but when has that man ever listened to anyone?”


	2. Chapter 2

Three and a half months later

Taking deep, laboured breaths, Lee looked at where the last two fingers of his left hand had been until a few minutes ago. The pain was bad, and if the toasters had fed him in the last few days he was sure he would have thrown up, but as it was there was nothing to throw up, so he was able to deny them that particular satisfaction.

The two Cavils were standing over him, eying him like an insect before one knelt down to pick up the fingers he had just cut off. “Fascinating, isn’t it? How much such small wounds can bleed?”

It was a rhetorical question, they wouldn’t let him bleed to death, no matter how much he wanted them too. They still hadn’t gotten anything out of him and that was annoying them to no end, hence the now missing fingers.

The second Cavil knelt down next to where Lee was chained to the floor and started to wrap a bandage around his stumps, careful to avoid the puddle of blood that had already formed. “You really should start telling us something useful, Commander. This might get a lot worse for you soon if you don’t.”

Lee gave him a cold look before pulling his cuffed hands back and cradling them against his chest. “Frak off and die.” He told them.

The first Cavil made a disgusted sound and let Lee’s fingers fall to the ground, before walking out. The second shook his head disappointed and followed.

Only when he was alone, did Lee allow himself to curl into a ball on the cold floor. He knew they were watching him over a security feed, but as long as they weren’t in here with him he could at least pretend that no one saw.

He didn’t know how long he had been in here, he had lost track of time after the first few days, and it didn’t matter either, his father would come and get him out at one point, or he would die in here and that were the only two options open to him. Telling the Cylons anything was not.

Two weeks he had managed to avoid the toasters and help Tyrol and Roslin to get the resistance up and running. Tigh and Kara had been arrested immediately, but it had taken the skin jobs a few days to learn that Lee was even down here. If he were a betting man he his money would be on Baltar telling them.

They had managed to ambush him and his group, but thankfully only he had been captured, the others had managed to escape. And ever since then they had tried to torture information out of him about his father’s plans, the resistance, who was a member, who a sympathizer, unsuccessfully so far, and Lee intended to keep it that way, though at one point he might have to take some drastic measures to ensure that. Because in the end it didn’t matter how long he held out, entropy always won.

When the door suddenly opened some time later, Lee expected the Cavils to be back for some more gloating, but it was one of the Simons.

He picked the severed fingers up and inspected them carefully for a long time. “You know, Commander, I’ve never had a chance to re-amputated anything. I think I would like to give it a try. Do you want to watch?”

The fingers were back where they belonged, but Lee couldn’t feel them. He doubted the Simon had taken the time and effort to reattach the nerves, he barely had bothered with wrapping bandages around them once he was done. Too proud of his work to hide it. It had been a Three who had insisted, to avoid infection.

And it was a Three who led Baltar into his cell now. The man looked very uncomfortable being here and though he tried to hide it, he looked ready to bolt.

Lee sat where he was and barely glanced at them, he just waited. The Cylons were patient, they could play this game, Baltar, though he was a scientist, could not.

“You know, Commander, Lee, this is getting ridiculous.” Baltar started after a look from the Three. “I mean, look at you, dirty and chained up like an animal and for what? Why not tell them what your father has planned? One of the old, discarded plans? Make your life easier in here, just give them something?

Lee shrugged though it hurt the injuries from his last beating. Yes, the moment he didn’t return from New Caprica his father would have scrapped all the plans Lee had been privy too, he couldn’t risk not to. The resistance would have changed all its passwords and security procedures to make sure they couldn’t be infiltrated should Lee talk. It was nothing personal, just common sense. He really hoped that if they abandoned the tunnels and that they had found a safe place to set up again. “I don't have to justify myself to you.”

Baltar started at the harsh words and straightened his tie. “Actually, you do. I'm the President of the Twelve Colonies.”

Lee forced a smile. “You're a bad joke.”

“And yet, I'm not the one in chains.” Baltar pointed out.

“Aren't you?” Lee asked. Was that man really that deluded? They were all slaves down here. Just because the Cylons claimed that they wanted to live in peace with the humans, didn’t make it true. And even if they were sincere about it, they went about it the wrong way.

“This is pointless.” The Three spoke up. “Maybe we should make an example out of you, Commander. A little public execution might do the trick.”

Lee looked at her unconcerned. “Go ahead, the resistance can make use of a martyr.”

“There is no resistance.” Baltar claimed. “We crushed it weeks ago.”

Lee chuckled humourlessly. “And they call me a bad liar.”

That was when Baltar fled the cell and Lee didn’t think that he would be coming back, unless the Cylons would make him come back, when they decided to give up this charade make him Lee’s cellmate.

“Got to say I like the beard, Apollo.” The Eight said upon entering the cell. It was the first time that an Eight had come to visit. And really, their idea of hygiene was hosing him down every now and then, considering that, he thought he looked rather well-kept.

“Hello, Boomer.” Lee replied. The Eights might look all the same, but Boomer was still different. Something in the way she moved, he thought, but he couldn’t put his finger on it.

“How can you tell?” she wanted to know.

“Who else would come to visit me in my little vacation home?” Lee asked. “Are you getting bored with your little pet project?”

That seemed to have been the wrong thing to ask, because she suddenly looked very, very angry. “We’re really trying, but you people, you humans, you just don’t want to give this a chance.”

“I wonder why.” Lee muttered.

“You know, I’ve been very nice to everyone, always, you remember, right? How nice I’ve been to everyone on Galactica. I saved those civilians back during the attack, I didn’t have to but I did.” Boomer started to rant and suddenly she had a remote control and a knife in her hands. “But I’m really reaching my limit here, with all this ungratefulness.” She pushed a button on the remote and the light on the camera went out.

“Who’s ungrateful?” Lee asked carefully.

“Cally, that little bitch.” Boomer replied and knelt next to him. “Not enough that she stole Galen from me, no, she even had his baby, and what does she do? Join the frakking resistance and then is upset when she’s arrested. Because she can’t see her baby!” With the last word Boomer rammed the knife into his chest.

Lee had expected something like that when he had seen it was her who came in, but it still hurt like hell when the blade sank in. And even more when she pulled it out again. He was used to pain by now, but it didn’t make this any easier to bear. But then, he had given up on a quick death a while ago.

“I’m being nice! I’m being understanding!” Boomer screamed and stabbed him another couple of times. “I’m trying to do good…Oh, no, no, I didn’t mean… “She whispered suddenly realizing what she was doing. “I’m sorry, Apollo…I’m getting Cottle.”

When she turned around to leave, Lee grabbed her around the waist and pulled her down. His new wounds hurt even worse than before but he kept holding on until he had his arms around her neck. And for a long moment he just wanted to break it, but he couldn’t. She would just download and he would be bleeding out in his cell because for once no one was watching. And no matter his personal feelings on his own survival, he still had a job to do.

Boomer struggled against him and she was so strong, so much stronger than him in his weakened state but he didn’t let go. He couldn’t kill her, but he could knock her out. Knock her out and maybe get out of here. If only he could knock her out.

After a few minutes Boomer stopped struggling but Lee didn’t let go immediately, she might be faking it. Only when he was sure that she was out but not dead, did he let go and reached for the knife. It was bigger than he would have liked but after a few tries he manged to break the first of the cuffs and freed his left arm. The other took a while longer thanks to his mangled fingers and he expected someone to come in at any moment to check up on them, but no one did and then he was suddenly free.

“Frak me.” Lee breathed, pressing a hand against his stab wounds. He allowed himself a count of five to get his act together and then he grabbed the knife again, and Boomer’s access card, and staggered to the door.

He opened the doors next to his own cell, but they were all empty. Either they were getting bored of locking people up or they had him in a section of their prison they reserved for special guests. Somehow he was sure it was the later.

Wincing in pain, Lee slowly made his way along the corridor. He was leaving a trail of blood, but that couldn’t be helped until he found something to dress the wounds with.

He was about to turn yet another corner when he heard footsteps coming his way. He slid back into the shadows of the sparsely lit hallway and watched one of the Leobens carry a try down yet another hallway. Lee didn’t hesitate and followed him. It had been a Leoben who had arrested Kara, this one might be able to tell him where to find her, or something like that. Thinking was getting harder, and he felt more light-headed with every step.

When the Leoben stepped into one of the cells, Lee was just in time to stop the door from falling closed again. He slipped in and for a moment could only stare. This…this was just…He was standing in Kara’s and Zak’s old apartment on Caprica.

“Kara, I brought you something special.” Leoben called, still not having noticed Lee. “Kara, don’t make me come and find you again.”

Without thinking Lee grabbed the vase on the little shelf next to the door and almost felt down the steep stairs, but his aim was still good enough. He hit Leoben on the back of his head and the Cylon crumbled to the floor.

“Lee?” a voice suddenly asked.

Lee sank onto the stairs and to his utter relief Kara stood here, looking surprised but in one piece. “Hey, fancy meeting you here. Is he dead?”

Kara bent down and checked Leoben’s pulse. “No, he’s still breathing, but I’m going to change that.”

“Kara, no.” Lee panted. “He dies, he downloads. We need time to get out of here.”

Reluctantly Kara stepped back and her eyes grew wide when she saw the blood covering him. “Shit, wait, I’ll get some towels.”

“Sure.” Lee whispered and startled badly when Kara was suddenly back without him noticing and pressed a towel against his wounds before wrapping strips of some cloth around it.

“That won’t hold forever, but at least long enough to make a run for it.” Kara muttered. “You can run, right?”

Lee was pretty sure he couldn’t but he still nodded. “Grab his access card. We might as well take as many with us as we can.”

Kara nodded and patted the still unconscious Leoben down until she found the card in one of his pockets. “Right, let’s blow this joint. And how I wish I could mean that literally.”

She helped him back up to his feet and they staggered up the stairs and out of the cell.

“Kara, why does that place look like that?” Lee wanted to know.

Starbuck hesitated for a moment. “Toasters are crazy, Lee, remember?”

It wasn’t really an answer but Lee let it go, forcing Starbuck to talk when she didn’t want to never worked. And they had other things to focus on right now, because they finally were in a part of the prison where a lot more people were being kept.

Lee was surprised and somewhat suspicious that no alarm had been sounded yet, but he could worry about this being a trap later. For now they needed to get out of here. They opened every cell they came across, finding dozens of frightened and surprised faces in there, most of them familiar.

“Commander Adama, you’ve looked better.” Zarek commented when he stepped out of his cell.

“And you’re a vision, as always.” Lee replied and handed him the access card he had taken off of Boomer. “Here, unlock some more cells for me, I need a minute.”

Zarek hesitated a moment but then got to work, while Lee rested against the wall. The bleeding had slowed down but by no means stopped. There was a good chance he wouldn’t make it out.

“That’s all in this wing.” Zarek announced as he and Kara came back.

Lee didn’t know how many prisoners were milling around but they needed to get them moving. “Anyone know where the exit is?”

Zarek grinned. “I do, I memorized the layout of this place when they brought me in. Force of habit, I did that with every prison I was in.”

“Aren’t we lucky?” Kara muttered and helped Lee back to his feet.

Lee put a hand on her shoulder before turning to Zarek. “Pass the word, once we’re out of here, everyone needs to make their way into the woods, but no groups, two, three at the most. There are caves in which to hide. The Cylons won’t be able to keep this quiet so the resistance will come and get them, but under no circumstances are they to hide in the city or try to come back on their own.”

Zarek nodded with a grin. “Too dangerous, I know. Not my first jail-break, Apollo.”

After splitting up outside the prison, Kara and Lee ran into a couple of human cops, if one could call those idiots that, and Kara went to town on them. She really had a lot of pent up frustrations inside her and she didn’t stop until Lee staggered against her.

“As much as I like to watch a good show, we need to keep moving.” He panted. It was night and the darkness and curfew were hiding them well, hopefully until they were in the surrounding forest. But it was better to not test their newfound luck too much.

Kara took a shuddering breath and nodded. “You’re right…you’re right, but these traitorous frakkers had it coming.” She bent down and started to unlace the nearest one’s boots.

“Kara.” Lee warned.

“You need boots, Lee, you can’t run around in that sorry excuse of shoes.” Kara pointed out as she worked on the second boot.

Lee had completely forgotten about that. He only wore some grey, blood-soaked scrubs and kind of slippers, nothing else. “Yeah, guess you’re right, grab his jacket too, will you?”

“Right.” Kara put the boots in front of him and while he put them painfully slowly on she stripped them of their jackets and guns too. Starbuck never let a spare weapon lying around. “Frak me, that’s Jammer.”

“What?” Lee asked confused as he put the jacket she handed to him on. It was too big on him and he was still cold he noticed but at least the boots fitted well enough.

“That’s Jammer, that little moron.” Kara repeated. “I can’t believe I let that frakker work on my bird.”

Lee remembered the man now, he had been hiding in the small arms locker when they had been boarded. That felt ages ago now. But he had kept his cool well enough to fire on the Centurions, even if he had only hit the torso of the hulking figures. And now he had turned traitor.

“Leave him, we have to get out of here.” Lee urged when Kara kept staring the unconscious man.

“Why not head straight for the tunnels?” Kara asked. “They’ve got meds down there.”

Lee shook his head and almost fell over, he was really getting light-headed now. “I don’t know if I really escaped for if they let me go. There still isn’t an alarm. They might be playing us. We can’t give the others away.”

“Thought about this, didn’t you?” Kara wanted to know as she put his arm around her shoulder to keep him upright.

“I don’t know what you’ve been doing since the toasters showed up, but I had a lot of time to think between torture sessions.” Lee told her.

Before Kara could reply the sirens started blaring and cones of light suddenly swept over the tent city. Next would be the Centurions and human police.

“Right, let’s get out of here.” Kara muttered and dragged him towards the treeline.


	3. Chapter 3

“You let them escape! How could you be so incompetent?” One of the Cavils wanted to know from the Dorals that were standing in the corridor with all the newly emptied cells.

“We were doing a standard maintenance protocol. The prisoner shouldn’t have been able to notice anything different.” The Fives defended themselves.

“And they wouldn’t have if Boomer here hadn’t gone crazy on the commander.” Another added.

Boomer looked at them tiredly. “I’m not crazy.”

The Doral gave her a condescending look. “Could have fooled me.”

“It’s not an absolute disaster, we recaptured a few, killed some.” D’Anna pointed out. “The rest has fled in the forest, they won’t last long out there without any food or weapons.”

As he watched the argument go back and forth, Felix really hoped that they would continue to ignore him and Baltar. Because if they remembered them, they just might decide to kill them both to keep this colossal blunder under wraps. And he desperately needed to get word of this to the resistance. The official line was that there had been a fire in the prison that had killed some of the detainees and Felix couldn’t risk the resistance not figuring out what had really happened.

“Some will try to sneak back in, reunite with their families.” Baltar’s Six pointed out. “Increase the patrols and they’ll find them eventually. Then make them talk.”

When Galen came into their hideout he looked positively ecstatic. Roslin hadn’t seen anyone this happy in a very long time.

“Good news?” She wanted to know.

“Pretty good, actually.” Tyrol replied and unfolded several pieces of paper on the table where she and Saul Tigh were sitting. “There was a jailbreak a few hours ago.”

“Explains the increased toaster presence.” Tigh muttered. “We got names of who got out?”

“We do.” Galen was openly smiling now. “Of the originally 86 that got out, twelve were recaptured, five got killed and 69 are still on the loose. Cally, Starbuck and Apollo among the latter.”

Laura breathed a sigh of relief. Lee was alive and hadn’t given them away. She had known he wouldn’t, he would have died first, but it was still good to have confirmation of it. “We need to gather them up and bring them here to safety.”

“That’ll strain our recourses.” Tigh pointed out. “But it will also give us a lot more fighters. Starbuck and Apollo will have told them to split up and hide, so we need to make sure we search every nook and cranny of that forest out there for them before the toasters do. Start with the designated evacuation spots, Chief”

“Yes, Sir.” Galen promised. “We’re getting them all back.”

Watching the Centurions patrol through her scope, Kara was so tempted to pull the trigger, but that would have brought even more of them down on them and so far they hadn’t been discovered. Until the resistance came to pick them up they needed to lay low, besides Lee wasn’t doing so well.

Refilling the water bottle they had found among the emergency rations in their little cave, Kara sneaked back to it. She had managed to bandage him up for now but he had lost a lot of blood and probably needed some stitches if not outright surgery.

She found him more asleep than awake when she came back but still managed to make him drink something.

“How’s the situation?” he wanted to know.

“Toasters are patrolling but I didn’t hear any shouting or shooting, so I think they haven’t had much success so far.” Kara replied.

“Good.” Lee sighed and closed his eyes again. “Gaeta will get word to the XO. They’ll be here in a soon.”

“What?” Kara asked surprised. “Why would that little weasel help us?”

“Because Felix is idealistic, not stupid, Kara.” Lee told her. “He’s been disillusioned by Baltar a month into his new job, but he stuck with him because the Admiral asked him to, just in case.”

“Frak, why did no one tell me?” Kara wanted to know.

“You had other priorities.” Lee reminded her gently.

Kara scoffed. “Yeah, that worked out really well too.”

“Trouble in paradise?” Lee asked. He had been too angry to keep up on what was going on with Sam and Kara, besides, his own marriage hadn’t been a glorious success story either, though things had been looking up just before the Cylons had shown up. Probably because Dee had almost force-fed him his anti-depressants.

“Sam’s an idiot, I’m an idiot. We’re all idiots.” Kara muttered. “Why did anyone think this was a good idea?”

“New Caprica, or you and Sam?” Lee wanted to know.

“Both, I guess.” Kara sighed and leaned against the crate that pretty much made up all there was in this little hideout. “How are thing with you and Dee? I mean, before…you know.”

“We were working through some things.” Lee replied tiredly. “Did you know that talking to each other actually helps?”

Kara snorted. “I think you’re getting delusional. When did I ever talk about something?”

“You did with Zak.” Lee pointed out quietly.

Kara’s face grew still and Lee knew that had been the wrong thing to say. “Don’t mention him, Lee. Not down here.”

They were silent for a while and Lee was feeling himself drift off when a thought popped into his head again. “Kara, why did you cell look like that?”

“Cylons are crazy, I told you,” Kara shook her head. “He tried to frak with my head, that’s all. Too bad for him I’m already all frakked up.”

“Kara…” Lee started.

“It’s fine, Lee, I’m fine.” Kara interrupted him.

“No, you’re not. None of us are.” Lee disagreed and sighed. “Why did things go so wrong between us? Did I scare you that badly?”

Kara was silent for so long that Lee had given up on an answer when she finally did. “You did, you still do. Because you love me, no matter what. Just like Zak did and I got him killed.”

“And you think if you dare to love me that I’ll die too?” Lee wanted to know.

Kara nodded slowly. “Sam’s safe. I like him, he’s fun and solid, but he doesn’t love me like you do. So he’s safe, he won’t die because of me.”

“That’s bullshit,” Lee stated. “And you know it.”

“Maybe I do, but it’s too late now, I frakked it up even before the Cylons showed up.” Kara muttered. “Do you really love me still? After everything?”

Lee nodded slowly. “I do, I always will.”

“But.” Kara prompted.

“But I had a lot of time on my hands recently…” Lee continued.

“Not funny, Apollo.” Kara hissed.

With a sigh Lee tried to find a more comfortable position on the cold ground. “Alright, not funny, but I love Dee more than I love you. I should have realized that a lot sooner. I’m sorry about that, but that’s how I feel.”

Kara chuckled humourlessly. “Now I know you’re delusional, apologizing for loving your wife. Only you, Apollo, only you.”

Lee wasn’t sure how much time had passed when he heard voices at the front of the cave. He had fallen asleep at one point only to be woken by Kara some time later, forcing him to take some pills because apparently he was running a fever. After that everything had become hazy while his shivered in the too large jacket. He thought Kara might have gone for some more water, but he wasn’t sure.

“Sir, Commander,” a new voice startled him. Scarlett, that was Scarlett.

“I’m fine.” Lee muttered, trying to sit up, but hands pushed him back down.

“Sure you are, Commander, but why not take it easy for a bit, huh?” Scarlett told him. “Looks like you caught yourself a nice infection on top of everything.”

“Wouldn’t want to make it easy for you, Lt.” Lee replied. There were others in the cave with them now, but Lee couldn’t make their faces out in the dark.

“No, Sir, wouldn’t want to do that.” Scarlett agreed and pushed the jacket and shirt aside so she could have a look at his wounds. “Oh, man, Cottle will be happy to see you, that’s for sure.”

“Can we move him?” another voice asked. That sounded like Sam.

“Yeah, but be careful, these will break open again, don’t make it any worse than you absolutely have to.” Scarlett told him.

Lee reached for her arm. “Scanners first, Lt. They might have put something on us.”

Silver nodded. “Chief’s powering it up right now. Couple of minutes, then we’re good to go.”


	4. Chapter 4

When Lee woke again he was lying on a cot and was a lot warmer. It took him a while to figure out that he was in one of the resistance tunnels.

“Captain Apollo, good to see you awake.” Roslin greeted him with a tired smile. “You had us worried for a moment there.”

“Sorry, Madam President.” Lee replied, trying to sit up, but Roslin pushed him back down, easily. He did feel as weak as a new-born kitten. “You didn’t abandon the tunnels.”

“No, we have emergency plans in place, but we decided that relocating wasn’t worth the danger the move would have meant and stayed.” She told him.

“You shouldn’t have, too risky.” Lee pointed out.

“Is it? No one gave us away.” Roslin said. “I knew you wouldn’t.”

“Still.” Lee sighed. “The others? How many made it?”

“Most of them, twelve got recaptured, five died, but 69 made it out. I never was so happy to see Zarek’s smug face as when they brought him in.” Roslin smiled. “He doesn’t know whether to be happy about the fact that we managed to keep all of this hidden from him or not.”

“Happy, right now. Though we probably should talk about the military keeping secrets again at one point.” Zarek spoke up as he came over with a couple of bowls in his hand. “Sorry, no solid food for you yet, Commander. Dr. Cottle was not pleased when they brought you in.”

“Yeah, not used to food anymore anyway.” Lee muttered. “What’s the situation? Did you manage to make contact with the fleet?”

Roslin shook her head. “They’re still jamming us. The Chief is working on getting the frequency codes, but his source is taking its time.”

Gaeta, had to be. Lee thought. “What about retaliation for us escaping?”

“Almost nothing, they’re still trying to sell it as a fire and that most of us are still in there.” Zarek explained. “And probably hope that we’re stupid enough to think we can get our old lives back if they don’t raise the alarm, and they’re lying in wait for us. But we’re circulating the word, people aren’t buying anything the toasters say anyway.”

“Good,” Lee winced as he sat up. Roslin gave him annoyed look but he kept at it “Now I need to use the head and none of you is coming with me.”

He didn’t return to his cot afterwards, he had been lying around long enough. Cottle had left instructions what he could eat or drink, so Lee got some of the almost tasteless tea and sat in what had been turned into the mess hall. The heat of the tin cup felt good, though he almost didn’t feel it in his two mangled fingers. He couldn’t even wrap them around the cup properly.

“They brake those?” Tigh asked when he sat down opposite him.

Lee had been wondering where the old drunk had gotten off to. “Among other things.” He replied, at least he still had them. He doubted there was an eye left under the XO’s eyepatch. “These two they cut off, then they stuck them back on and expected me to be grateful.”

“Frakking toasters.” Tigh muttered. “How’d you get out?”

Ah, so they decided to send him for the interrogation. Made sense, he wouldn’t beat around the bush and coddle him. Good, Lee never liked the XO, but in this at least, he could respect him.

“Boomer, she went a bit nuts on me. Cally had pissed her off, or something.” Lee explained. “I got the drop on her when she turned her back. At least I like to think that’s what happened. It might as well just be an elaborate ploy to find you guys. But they didn’t find any trackers on me, did they?”

“No, you’re clean, all the others were too. You might really have gotten lucky.” Tigh stated.

Lee scoffed. “Yeah, that’s how I feel, very lucky.”

He kept sipping his tea while Tigh kept watching him. Eventually the old man came to a conclusion. “Good to have you back, Apollo. We need every fighter we can get once your old man comes back.”

Lee nodded in agreement. He would fight when the time came. He didn’t know how much use he would be, but he would do his part. “Can’t wait to get off this rock.” And back to Dee, if she would still have him. Because he needed her, he knew that now. That one time, when they had stopped giving him any water for a few days, he had almost given in and begged. But then, after the first two days, he had stopped caring. Nothing had mattered anymore, not the Cylons, not the fleet, not his father, or the civilians on the planet, not even Dee. It might have been his depression acting up, or something. But once they had realized he had been about to die, and they had stuck an IV into his arm and forced a gallon of water down his throat, all he had wanted Dee in his arms, more than anything. Because with her he felt safe.

He didn’t tell Tigh that part. That was none of his business.

Regular food, tasteless as it was, helped a lot in getting his strength back, though he still tired easily and the stab wounds were taking their time healing up.

“And it’ll take even longer with you because you have no reserves left.” Cottle informed him when Lee had made an impatient comment about that. “Just be glad you’re still breathing, and don’t you dare undo all my good work.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.” Lee assured him.

Cottle hadn’t bought it, of course, but there wasn’t much he could do. He had too many other patients to sit on him even with turning Lt. Silver into his assistant to fool the Cylons as to who she was. Apparently she turned out to be a pretty good medic too, aside from being a good pilot.

Now they were sitting around what passed for the command center of the resistance, discussing their options. Which had improved significantly a few hours ago when Tyrol had finally gotten the jamming frequencies. Now they only had to keep their fingers crossed that there really was a raptor out there listening.

Sam was the only one insisting that no one was, that they had been abandoned. Tigh shut him down quickly, reminding him that the admiral had always planned for this eventuality, with Kara just sitting here like none of this concerned her. Delayed shock, maybe, or maybe she was just too tired to care. Lee didn’t think she had gotten much sleep since they got here.

“First thing we need to do is get our hands on the launch codes.” Tigh stated next. “Then we need to get people onto the ships before the Cylons can stop them.”

“You worry about the codes, I’ll take care of the people.” Roslin said. “We did run a couple of evacuation drills in the early days.”

“You said that was because there was the possibility of flooding and earthquakes.” Zarek pointed out.

“And there is, a minor one.” Roslin replied. “Doesn’t matter why we evacuate, now does it?”

Zarek inclined his head. “Point taken. But say we pull this off, what then? Baltar can’t stay president, and I doubt many are happy to accept me in that position either.”

“I have an idea for that, though it might offend your democratic sensibilities a bit.” Roslin told him with a smile.

“Oh, please, Laura,” Zarek grinned. ”Offend away.”


	5. Chapter 5

They had finally established contact. Only a couple of short messages, but it was enough. Galactica and the rest of the fleet were out there, with a plan to get them off the planet, now all they had to do was coordinate the details. The admiral would send someone down in the next few days to discuss their part with them.

Lee felt a lot better when he laid down to sleep that night. There was finally an end in sight. Whether they pulled it off or not, soon it would be over. Or maybe that was the painkillers making him fuzzy in the head. Like he didn’t notice Roslin mix them into his dinner, afraid he wouldn’t take them if she outright told him to.

Which was why it took him a long time to notice that someone was moving against him, trying to find a way for two people to fit on a cot barely wide enough for one person.

“What are you doing, Kara?” he asked, still more asleep than awake, but he would recognize her annoyed breathing anywhere.

“I can’t sleep.” She replied and finally settled her head on his shoulder.

“You have a husband for that.” Lee pointed out.

Kara put the blanket up to cover them both. “Shut up and go back to sleep, Lee.”  
  


Lee wasn’t surprised when Sam sat down opposite him the next morning, but he didn’t seem angry, which did surprise him.

“I don’t like it.” Sam started. “But this was the first night she got more than an hour or two of sleep, so I’m not going to stop her if she heads to you again, but don’t let it go any further.”

“Alright.” Lee replied, though it was Kara’s decision how far she wanted to go, not that Lee was up to much anyway. And Sam knew that, he was just trying to be a good husband.

“Listen, Lee,” Sam hesitated. “She’s not talking to me, but she’s clearly not well. What did they do with her in there? Did they hurt her?”

Lee sighed, trying to figure out how to explain this. “Not physically, Kara can deal with that sort of pain. They messed with her head. That place they kept her in looked like the apartment she and Zak had back on Caprica. And that one toaster…I think he was trying to take Zak’s place. And that she can’t deal with.”

Sam ran a hand over his face. “Alright, I’ll bite. Who’s Zak?”

Lee shook his head. She hadn’t told him, of course, she hadn’t. This was Starbuck they were talking about. “Zak was her fiancé. He was also her student in Basic Flight, that’s where they met. He died a couple of years before the attack…but she was happy with him there, it was the one place she felt safe, I guess. And the Cylons took it and turned it into a nightmare.”

“Frak me.” Sam breathed. “One would think she would mention something like that.”

“Have you met Kara?” Lee wanted to know.

Sam snorted. “Right. And he was a friend of yours too?”

“Zak?” Lee smiled sadly. “Zak was my little brother.”

“You brother…your little brother.” Sam groaned. “No wonder you hate me.”

“I don’t hate you, Sam.” Lee protested quietly. Much to his surprise it was actually the truth. Sam was a nice, upstanding guy, he and Zak would have been best friends in no time.

“Of course you do. How could you not? I took your brother’s place.” Sam pointed out.

“I don’t hate you.” Lee repeated. “I hate the fact that there is a place for you to take, because it means that Zak’s not there anymore.”

“Alright, the admiral is sending someone down to meet with us tomorrow.” Galen announced once they were yet again gathered in their little command center a couple of days later. It was one of the few places in the tunnels that wasn’t over-crowded but only because they had the most sensitive and important stuff in here. Though no one quiet knew why Ellen was here, aside from fawning over the XO who did actually seem embarrassed by it.

“We set up a meeting place in the forest, right here.” Sam put a hand drawn map on the table pointing to what had to be one of the little rivers criss-crossing the forest. “Ten miles, easy going, outside of the Cylon patrols. We sneak them in after nightfall.”

Tigh nodded. “Won’t be many. A pilot, couple of marines. But still, be careful, I don’t want any trouble now that the finishing line is in sight.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll take my boys, they can take care of any problems.” Sam assured him and folded the map again. “Besides, only I know where the meeting spot is exactly.”

“Good, let’s keep it that way.” Tigh said and held his hand out.

Sam gave him the map and when the XO leaned forward to reach for the stove, Ellen quickly stepped in the way. “Let me, Saul.” She took the map and the other papers they had been using to tally their numbers. How many fighters, how many guns and where they were. Better not leaving them lying around either.

She opened the stove and threw the papers in and for a moment Lee thought he was mistaken, but no, Ellen had pushed the map inside her coat instead of burning it. What was that crazy woman up to now?

“Alright, not long now. So nobody get cocky.” Tigh ordered. “We pull this off and get everyone of this rock. Failure is not an option. Am I clear?”

A chorus of subdued agreement sounded and then people started to disperse. When Ellen passed by where Lee he stood up and stepped in her way.

“Hand it over, Ellen.” He said quietly.

Ellen laughed nervously. “I don’t know what you mean, Lee.”

“I mean the map you just pretended to burn and slipped into your coat.” Lee stated. “Hand it over.”

“Ellen?” Tigh asked confused.

“I don’t know what he’s talking about, Saul. I burned everything you gave me.” Ellen insisted.

“Then you won’t mind.” Tigh reached inside her coat and pulled the folded piece of paper out. “Ellen, why?” he asked after a long moment.

“I did it for you, Saul.” Ellen stated. “They knew you were leading the resistance. They wouldn’t let you go if I didn’t bring them information about them. I did it for you. I would do anything for you.”

“You shouldn’t.” Tigh sighed.

This was bad. Ellen knew a lot about their plans, if she told the Cylons they were all as good as dead. And Lee wasn’t the only one realizing that.

“We can’t let her leave now.” Sam spoke up. “She knows everything. They’ll make her talk once they find out she failed. And you know what we do with traitors.”

“Saul!” Ellen cried. “I did it for you. I got you out of that horrid place, I got…I did it for you, for us.”

Tigh threw the map into the fire. “You’re a collaborator, Ellen, we, I, can’t let that slide.”

“So, that’s it? You’re just going to kill me? After everything we’ve been through?” Ellen wanted to know, no longer scared but angry.

“You’re leaving me with no choice.” Tigh whispered.

But that wasn’t true, was it? Lee had been watching the whole thing and an idea had formed in his mind. “Can you draw another map, Sam? One of the gorges north-west of here, maybe?”

“Yeah, but why, we can’t change the meeting place now.” Sam pointed out.

“Not for us, for the toasters.” Lee replied. “A little ambush to keep them occupied while you bring the contact in.” It should be easy enough, lure the Cylons to the fake meeting place and shoot them to pieces. They managed to take them all out, great, they managed to call for reinforcement, even better, more attention on them meant less risk for Sam and the contact.

Sam slowly nodded understanding dawning in his eyes. “Yeah, I can do that. I even know a good place.”

“Good.” Lee looked at Ellen. “And you better sell this to them, or the toasters will be the least of your problems. You pull it off, you’re being an important undercover asset that most didn’t know about, if not, well, then we’re all dead anyway.”

“I will.” Ellen assured him. “I can do that.”

Sitting on his cot, Lee slowly and carefully stripped the rifle Sam had brought him and cleaned every piece before putting it back together. His hands were clumsy going through the familiar motions but he got the job done and he could shoot in a straight enough line that Tigh had given him command of the team setting the ambush. Now all he had to do was not frak it up.

“I wanted to thank you, Apollo.” Tigh said as he sat down on the cot next to his. For the first time the XO looked like an old man, especially with the cane. It was an unsettling sight.

“What for?” Lee asked putting the ammunition in and checking that a round was in the chamber.

“Stopping Ellen from selling us out, and saving her life.” Tigh told him.

“That remains to be seen.” Lee pointed out. “They might see through her and beat everything out of her.”

Tigh shook his head. “No, she’ll sell it. Ellen can sell anything if she wants to. But it was stupid of her to even attempt it. Collaborating with the toasters, frakking stupid move.”

Lee shrugged. “She did the wrong thing for the right reasons. She won’t be the only one.”

“Yeah, we’re going to have to deal with that eventually.” Tight sighed. “Well, good hunting, Apollo, and make sure the skin jobs don’t die too quickly.”


	6. Chapter 6

There were four skin jobs, two Cavils and two Leobens, and a dozen centurions making their way as quietly as possible through the ravine. Not that Centurions were built for stealth.

“Can’t believe she really pulled it off.” Scarlett muttered next to him.

Lee had had his doubts too, but Ellen really was a world-class actress when she wanted to be, or maybe she screwed the skin jobs senseless enough that they didn’t question her information. Lee was pretty sure that was how she had gotten Tigh out of the prison. That really must be true love.

“Then we’ll better pull of our part too.” Lee replied. “Remember head shots for the centurions, the skin jobs you can shoot wherever you like, as long as it doesn’t kill them outright.” The longer it took for them to download, the longer Sam had to bring the contact in.

The others around him nodded. They had been itching for this for a long while. Tigh’s strategy of blowing things, and people, up was all well and good, but it was the toasters they needed to take out, not their own people, whether they were traitors or not.

Sighting down his rifle, Lee patiently waited until the last of the centurions was in the ravine and only then fired. Nothing would have pleased him more than taking down the Cavils, he owed those bastards, but the centurions were the ones with the guns and needed to be taken care first.

The firefight was over quickly and Lee had hit most of his targets. He was surprised by that himself. And they hadn’t suffered any losses. A couple had been clipped but nothing Scarlett couldn’t handle with her field kit. As Lee made his way down where the skin jobs were lying, he wondered if she would ever want to fly a raptor again. She was a damn good medic, and Cottle would probably want to keep her, maybe even train her as his assistant and eventual replacement. They had too few doctors anyway.

“Commander Adama.” One of the Cavils panted between clenched teeth. “What do you…hope to achieve…with this?”

Lee knelt next to him and took his gun before searching him. He didn’t bother replying. There was nothing he wanted to say to him or any other skin job.

“Cat…got your tongue?” Cavil baited.

Seelix stepped next to him and put her rifle against the old man’s forehead. “You don’t get to talk to him, you bastard.”

Lee pushed the rifle away gently. The Cavil was trying to make them kill him, Cylons didn’t like pain anymore than humans, which made their decision to become so humanlike all the more baffling to Lee. But that was a discussion for the priests and philosophers, not him.

He found the map and put it in his own pocket before standing up again. “Let’s get out of here.”

“Wait!” The Cavil called. “Don’t leave us here like that.”

Lee looked the four skin jobs over, they were all still alive, but dying, one of the Leoben’s wouldn’t last another hour. Too soon for his tastes, but it would have to do. He nodded to the rest of the team and they left, ignoring the cries for mercy behind them.

Sam and his team were already in the tunnels when Lee’s team came back, along with the contact the admiral had sent. And much to Lee’s surprise it was Sharon. It made sense, when he thought about it. As a Cylon she could move easier through the city than anyone else and she could get her hands on the launch codes without too much problems. But that didn’t mean that he liked her participation in this.

“Commander.” She greeted him with a careful nod. Looked like someone had already told her the high points of the occupation.

“Lieutenant.” Lee replied. It seemed his father had seen it fit to restore Boomer’s rank to her, or not Boomer, but Sharon Agathon now. Boomer was with the other Cylons, not down here. It wasn’t as easy keeping these two separate in his head as it should be. “Stg. Mathias.” He nodded to the marine. Her, he was glad to see.

“Now that the tearful reunions are over, let’s hear the old man’s plan.” Tigh said. “And especially your part in it, Boomer.”

“I’m not Boomer, Colonel.” Sharon pointed out. “I’m Sharon, I’m my own person. And I’m on your side, and that will never change.”

“Good to know.” Roslin smiled somewhat forced. “I assume the admiral sent you down to help us get the launch codes?”

“He did.” Sharon confirmed. “Galactica and Pegasus will launch an attack in four days, we need to get the launch codes shortly before that. Four, five hours if we can manage it.”

“That’s cutting it close.” Kara muttered.

“Too soon and the Cylons will know that something’s up and the plan will fail.” Sharon pointed out. “The admiral’s plan relies on timing more than anything.”

“He’ll use the phantoms then.” Lee muttered. “That’s…risky.”

Sharon nodded. “Yes, but the raptors will be more than just a diversion. He loaded several up with nukes.”

“What for?” Zarek wanted to know.

“Suicide runs.” Lee replied. “In case there are too many basestars, the raptors will sacrifice themselves to let the other ships escape.”

“Hopefully it won’t come to that.” Sharon stated as upbeat as possible. “Not if we’re fast enough with the evacuation.”

The armed teams took up their positions during the night. The moment the signal was given their job would be to keep the Cylons as busy as they could possible manage to allow the civilians to reach the ships. They would still lose between five and ten thousand, even the most generous estimates among the resistance didn’t paint a rosy picture.

“I feel like back on my first date.” Seelix muttered as they waited. Boomer, Sharon, would be making her way to the facility now to get the launch codes. Scarlett was getting her raptor up and running to provide information from the air and pick up any stragglers. Six, seven hours and this would be over, one way or another.

“Must have been some date.” Lee muttered.

“It was an absolute disaster. Danny managed to spill his food all over me because he didn’t know how to chew and walk at the same time.” Seelix smiled at the memory. “Kind of miss that, though, going on a date, you know.”

“Don’t look at me, I’m married.” Lee pointed out. “Try Connor, he’s been a widower for far too long anyway.”

Seelix shook her head. “Hasn’t looked at anyone since they killed his boy.”

Lee winced. “Shit, I didn’t know that.”

“Happened a couple of months ago. Kid was just playing around, Centurions mistook his wooden stick for a rifle and shot him.” Seelix explained. “They didn’t even apologize, just said that he should have kept a better eye on him”

There was nothing to say to that, so they sat there in silence, waiting for the sun to rise, waiting for the signal to move. Time was passing to slowly and too fast at the same time and then it was there. The sirens went off and they all sprang into action.


	7. Chapter 7

“Move, move, move!” Lee called to a group of frightened women cowering with a bunch of children behind the hospital tent. It was empty, of course, Cottle and his patients had been the first to be moved to nearest ship. As far as Lee knew it was also the first to take off. “Which group do you belong to?” He asked when they started to get up.

“Gamma.” One of the women called back.

“That way then. Connor take them.” Lee instructed. The man nodded and led the way, gun at the ready. It was chaos, even worse than Lee had expected. But he saw two other ships take off as he made his way towards where a few of the skin jobs were gathering.

“Commander!” he suddenly heard Gaeta call from his left.

“Frakking…” Seelix started but Lee pushed her gun down when she started to aim.

“Felix, what’s going on? Why aren’t you on Colonial One, getting it ready for take-off?” Lee wanted to know, ignoring Seelix’s surprised look.

“It’s Bears.” Gaeta replied, cradling his bleeding arm to his chest. “She’s taken Baltar and one of the Sixes to detonate the nuke. I tried to stop them, but she just shot me. We need to stop them. More than half the ships are still here.”

“Do you know where the nuke is?” Lee wanted to know. They had expected something like this but had hoped to be well away before anyone thought about blowing this place to pieces.

Gaeta nodded. “They took us there when they put it in. To make sure we would stay in line.”

“Let’s go then.” Lee decided. His team was supposed to be on the Larian when it took off but he and Seelix would have to catch a ride on whoever was still there when they were done.

Gaeta led them through the warren that was New Caprica’s tent city until they saw the Six standing outside the temple tent, gun in hand and Baltar hiding in the shadows.

“Bears must be inside.” Lee muttered. “Are you two thinking what I’m thinking?”

“That whoever gets Baltar has to pay the first round?” Seelix suggested.

Lee snorted. “I was more thinking along the lines of taking them out fast enough that Bears doesn’t have a chance to finish her work. But your idea works too.” He handed his sidearm to Gaeta. “You might just get lucky.”

“Yes, Sir.” Gaeta replied as he took the gun. “They hit my off-arm anyway.”

The Six went down first, Lee was pretty sure he was the one to blow her brains out. Baltar had enough time to look at them surprised before he was hit by several bullets. Lee then was through the tent entrance and found Bears kneeling before altar, her hands on the now revealed nuke, almost like she was in prayer.

Lee didn’t bother with any niceties and shot her in the back of her head. Seelix and Gaeta came in just as he pulled her off the device.

“Baltar’s dead.” Seelix stated coldly. “That thing hot?”

Lee nodded. “We have five minutes.”

“That’s not nearly long enough.” Gaeta pointed out.

“I know.” Lee muttered and pulled his knife out. “Let’s see if I remember enough from my academy class to do something about it.”

“Ah, are you sure that’s a good idea, Sir?” Felix wanted to know, eying his hands.

Lee started to unscrew the covering. “You want to give it a try?”

Gaeta shook his head. “No, but maybe I can help.” He gave his gun to Seelix and pulled a knife from his boot.

Lee nodded to him as he knelt on the other side of the bomb. “You might want to get a move on, Seelix.”

The woman shook her head. “I’m good right here, Commander. Someone has to watch you back.”

Lee worked as fast as he could, cursing his clumsy fingers more than once, but with two mintues to go they had revealed enough of the nuke’s insides that he could start cutting wires. The timer stopped at forty-two seconds.

“Alright, that was exciting.” Lee muttered and sat back.

Gaeta was leaning against the altar, looking pale and it wasn’t only from the blood he had lost. “Our rides will proabably be leaving right about now.”

“Yeah,” Lee agreed. “Guess we better see who’s left.”

With a last look around Lee led them back outside and towards where more and more ships were taking off. But there were also a lot of bodies lying on the ground. Five to ten thousand, Lee thought. He doubted that the higher count would be far off.

He was just rounding a corner, trying to not step on the dead, when he thought he heard…crying. “Is that…a baby?” he asked and looked around.

A moment later he saw a small arm wave angrily at the air. When Lee walked over he saw an about a year old toddler half buried under a woman’s body, a couple of men with rifles around them.

“Hey, there.” Lee said and pulled the woman away so he could scoop the child up. “It’s going to be alright. We’re getting out of here.”

“The others are dead.” Seelix said after a quick check.

Lee nodded, patting the baby’s back to try to calm her down. “Let’s keep going then.”

They didn’t have to make it to one of the other ships before it took off. Scarlett saw them and swooped down to pick them up, giving Lee a strange look when he took the co-pilot’s seat with the child in his arms.

“Anything you’re trying to tell me, Sir?” She asked with a perfectly straight face as she pulled the raptor back up.

“Whatever gave you that idea, Lt.?” Lee wanted to know. The girl, he was pretty sure it was a girl, in his arms was staring fascinated as the raptor climbed back into the air.

“Oh, nothing, Sir.” She did another turn over the city that was mostly free of raidres thanks to the vipers a couple of freighters had dropped earlier. “That was the last ship, Sir. Time to go home.” She announced about twenty minutes later.

“Best idea I’ve heard in a long time.” Lee muttered. It was done, they were going home.


	8. Chapter 8

Lt. Evers jumped the raptor back to the fleet the moment they broke atmosphere. A second later they were surrounded by the reunited fleet. Lee felt a wave of relieve was through him at the sight.

“Home, sweet home.” Scarlett muttered and guided the raptor towards Pegasus.

“Once we’ve got everything organized again.” Gaeta muttered. “Can you imagine the chaos the ships must be in? It’ll be weeks before we’ve sorted everything out.”

“Oh, for the love of the gods, Lt. Stop thinking about work for a second, will you?” Scarlett groaned. “All I’m looking forward to is a long, hot shower. You can join me, if you want.”

“Ah, I’ll think I’ll have someone look at my arm first.” Gaeta said and Lee could _hear_ him blushing.

Seelix snorted. “You do realize that Scarlet here is Cottle’s star student, right? She’ll be the one looking at that arm anyway. You can just as well show her the rest.”

“Alright, that’s enough of that.” Lee cut in. “There’s a child present. Just get us to Pegasus and we sort the rest out later.”

Later turned out to be sooner than expected. Because the moment Gaeta stepped from the raptor, he had a bunch of guns in his face.

“Stand down!” Lee barked and he was glad to see that his orders were still obeyed, if somewhat reluctantly in this case.

“But, Sir, he worked for the toasters.” One of the marines present pointed out. There were also a lot of civilians, they would stay here until they could returned to their ships, but that was a worry for tomorrow. For now, Lee had to keep Felix alive.

“On the admiral’s orders.” Lee stated. “Lt. Gaeta re-joined the Colonial Fleet eight months ago and was the admiral’s man on the inside of the Baltar administration.” Lee stepped up close to the woman. “And it that isn’t good enough for you, Sgt. He also provided the resistance with vital information during the entirety of the occupation.”

“How do you…?” Gaeta started surprised.

“It was either you or Baltar, and I’m sure we all can agree that Baltar didn’t have the guts to do anything as dangerous as leaking information.” Lee said. “Now, the Lt. and I will head to sickbay. You have your jobs to do here. I don’t want to hear anything about the civilians not being take good care off. You have a problem with any of that, I suggest you take it up with the admiral.”

The woman swallowed but nodded with a a slight smile. “Yes, Sir. Good to have you back, Sir.”

Sickbay wasn’t much better than the hangar but at least with the curtains drawn they all could pretend at having privacy.

“So, Commander, you seemed to have had quite the adventure.” Dr. Lauten said as she came in with a stern expression.

“I’m fine.” Lee replied.

Lauten smiled. “Good to see you still have sense of humour, Sir. Now, take that shirt off I need to have a good look at you.”

“How’s Gaeta, and the girl?” Lee asked while slowly taking his jacket and then the shirt off. The jacket was easier than the shirt. His entire body hurt.

“Gaeta got lucky, the bullet missed any arteries, Lt. Evers’ is preparing him for surgery now. And the girl doesn’t have a scratch on her.” Lauten told him. “Now, we just have to figure out whom she belongs to.”

Lee sighed. “We found her with a woman, I assume the mother, and a couple of guards. I don’t know if the father was among them.”

Lauten nodded. “We’ll run her DNA then, see if we can find anyone. Though that will take a while. We need to update the census. Couple of weeks, probably. She needs to stay somewhere until then.”

“Yeah, I’m sure we can find someone to take her in.” Lee muttered while Lauten started to prod at his stabwounds. “Careful.”

“Oh, does that hurt, Commander? Maybe then you shouldn’t run around playing dashing hero while you’re injured.” Lauten replied. She and Cottle were neck in neck when it came to bad bedside manners, a prerequisite for Fleet doctors, it seemed. “And I haven’t even had a good look at your hands yet. Anything else I should know?”

Her shift had ended a while ago, but Dee was still in CIC. There was just too much to do for a break. Though when Dr. Lauten had called her to tell her that Lee was hurt but well enough to be released to quarters, she had almost started to cry, and laugh. In the end she had done neither. She was in command, she couldn’t let the crew see how much she had missed her husband.

“Captain Dualla, we just received coordinates for two more jumps.” Lt. Hoshi announced.

Dee nodded. “Good. The farther away we get, the better. How are our guests doing?”

“Finally settling down for the night, Sir.” Hoshi replied.

“Then maybe you should get relieved, Lt.” Dee said. “You’ve been here too long anyway.”

“So have you, Sir.” Hoshi pointed out.

Dee sighed. “We all have. Very well, call the next shift and then get some rest. I think we all earned it.”

Hoshi nodded. “Yes, Sir.”

With a last look around CIC, Dee headed to her quarters. She wanted to run, frankly, but again she couldn’t do that. She had to set an example. Lee better be really in one piece or she would kill him for putting her through this.

It was quiet inside their quarters, though the lights were still on. She found Lee asleep in their bed, though she needed a moment to really recognized him. It wasn’t so much the beard but the weight he had lost. And of course he had started on the logs. Dee was pretty sure that hadn’t been what Dr. Lauten had had in mind when she told him to take it easy.

And why was there a baby lying between him and the wall? He better have a good explanation for that. But it could wait until tomorrow.

With a smile she pulled the log from under his hands and closed it. Lee muttered something under his breath but didn’t wake. She bent down to pull the blankets up further, tucking him in. She would take the couch for tonight. She still had some paperwork to do anyway.


	9. Chapter 9

Lee woke with a start and it took him a moment to remember where he was. His quarters on Pegasus, they had actually pulled it off and fled New Caprica. With a sigh he looked around. The girl was still sleeping but he could hear someone move around beyond the room-partitioner.

With a wince and a supressed groan he got up, noticing the log next to the bed. He had barely gotten two pages in before he had fallen asleep.

“Hey,” He said when he saw Dee sit at the table, working through some reports while sipping tea.

“Hey, yourself.” She replied with a smile. “How are you feeling?”

“Ah, that depends on whether Dr. Lauten has briefed you already. Because if she hasn’t then I’m just fine. Ready to go back to duty.” He told her as she sat down next to her, only then seeing the blanket. “Did you sleep on the couch?”

“Yes, I did, because you were the one who replaced me with a younger woman after only four months of separation.” Dee replied with a straight face.

Lee shrugged and kissed her cheek. “You can’t blame me for that, one look into her eyes and I was lost.”

Dee snorted and then they both started to laugh. Oh, but it felt good to be home. He wanted to take her into his arms and never let go.

“You’re impossible, Lee.” Dee said when she had calmed down again. “And yes, Dr. Lauten already told me about your…cuts and bruises. So I know you’re not fine.”

“I will be.” Lee promised.

“Sure, once she re-breaks your fingers and sets them properly.” Dee pointed out.

Lee made a face. “She also wants to try to repair some of the nerve damage in the couple they cut off and re-attached. But that can wait until there are no emergencies occupying her time.”

“Right, then there is the fact that we’ve lost a raptor pilot to Doc Cottles machinations.” Dee informed him.

“Yeah, I pretty much expected that.” Lee sighed. “Depending on how many pilots we lost, sickbay might be a better fit for her anyway.”

“We got lucky there, only four pilots lost in all.” Dee told him and ran her hand over his beard. “You’re getting rid of that, right?”

Lee smiled. “I am, don’t worry. I just didn’t want to try it last night. I’ll give it a go later.”

“Good, but eat something first.” Dee pointed over her shoulder at a covered tray. “And I mean, eat everything on that plate.”

“I will, if you put in a good word with Lauten to let me back on duty today.” Lee said.

Dee shook her head. “Oh no, you’re to stay here for two days, then she’ll re-evaluate. So, you eat, rest and take care of our houseguest, and that’s it.”

“Dee, I’m fine.” Lee stated. He was tired but he didn’t just want to sit around. He needed to do something.

“No, you’re not.” Dee disagreed. “So, be a good boy and do as the nice doctor says. Besides, your father will drop by later. So you better clean up. I’m not sure he’ll recognize you with that thing on your face.”

The admiral arrived just as Lee was finishing up shaving. His hair was getting too long too, but he would get to that later. It had taken him over an hour to shave without cutting his nose off. Maybe he should Lauten fix his fingers right away.

“You know, I’m pretty sure this is not what qualifies as resting.” Bill informed him when he saw the table strewn with logs, reports and lose pages Lee had been scribbling on.

“Don’t tell anyone then.” Lee suggested and came out of the bathroom and picked the girl up. She was a quick one, he had realized two hours after she had woken up. One second of inattention and she was off exploring.

“I don’t have to, Dee will figure it out anyway.” Bill pointed out and they sat down. “So what’s all this?”

“Ah, just catching up on what you have been up to.” Lee shrugged, pulling the pen from the girl’s hand before she could ruin his work. He gave her a slice of bread instead, which she immediately started to munch on.

“And the rest?” Bill prompted.

Lee sighed. “Report about what happened during the occupation. And since that’s a lot harder to write than I expected I also started on some ideas I had.”

“Dr. Lauten already sent me a copy of your medical exam, Lee. You don’t have to put all the details in, if you prefer not to.” Bill said. “And what ideas are we talking about?”

“We’ll have to keep some of the civilians on-board, won’t we?” Lee asked.

Bill nodded. “We lost only about five thousand, but with the ships we lost in the Cloud Nine explosion we’re still short. So, yes, Galactica and Pegasus will have to keep some.”

Lee had thought the body count would be far higher. There had been so many dead when he had gotten off, that he had been convinced they had lost at least twice that number.

“Right, well, I thought that they need to be organized in some way. We don’t have enough marines to police them, so they have to do that themselves.” Lee explained. “We can’t have them running around wherever they want. But after New Caprica, a new police force will probably not be a good idea, so I was more thinking of a…neighbourhood watch, equipped with non-lethal weapons to keep order.”

Bill looked thoughtful for a moment. “That’s actually a good idea. Once they’re settled they might even elect a spokesperson, or a mayor, or something. And I have to ask, who is she?” he nodded the girl who was still busy eating her bread.

“I found her when we got of New Caprica. Couldn’t just leave her.” Lee shrugged. “Lauten took a DNA sample to see if there’s any family left and until then she stays with us.”

“What’s her name?” Bill wanted to know.

“I don’t know. Guess we’ll have to think of something.” Lee replied.

“And if you don’t find anyone?”

Lee smiled a little. “Then we find her a new family, or keep her here. I’ve got to discuss this with Dee first.” He looked at his father. “When exactly did you promote her?”

“Couple of months in. Had to.” Bill told him. “She’s doing a pretty solid job.”

“Of course she does.” Lee said. “But I’m still getting my job back.”

“Oh, you won’t get any arguments from her or me on that front. As long as Lauten clears you.” Bill replied with a smile.

“She’ll have to eventually.” Lee pointed out.

The girl at that point decided that her bread wasn’t interesting enough anymore and that Admiral Bill Adama made a nice mountain to climb. With a chuckle he picked her up and let her play with the buttons of his uniform jacket. “She will, don’t worry. And I’m taking Gaeta back with me.”

Lee nodded. “I hope you plan on making an official announcement. The marines almost shot him when he got out of the raptor.”

“Don’t worry, I already briefed Roslin and Zarek. They’ll put out something.” Bill sighed. “And Baltar is really dead?”

“We put several bullets into him. Unless he’s a Cylon, he won’t be getting up from that.” Lee confirmed. “And now Zarek’s president. Maybe I should have let Kara take the shot back then.”

“He won’t be for long. Tomorrow Roslin will be sworn in as vice-president and then he’ll resign.” Bill explained.

“You’re kidding.” Lee exclaimed. “That I did not see coming.”

“Neither did I, along with the fact that he will then become her vice-president.”

Lee rubbed his face. “This is getting to complicated for me. How are the others? I haven’t seen Kara or Tigh since before the evacuation.”

“Banged up, as you all are.” Bill sighed. “Saul told me what you did for Ellen, so thank you for that. I don’t like her very much but she makes him happy and I guess that has to count for something. Kara joined up again, first thing she did once she got back to Galactica. And so did Sam, wants to become a pilot too.”

Lee smiled. “He’s going to regret that once Kara gets into her flight instructor mode.”

“Hey, I warned him, but he insisted.” Bill said with a grin.

It didn’t take long for some of the deck crew to come up with a little bed for the girl. Dee brought it with her at the end of the second day and they put it together with the girl watching them fascinated. When they put her in she inspected it thoroughly and then fell asleep with a smile on her face.

“What are we going to call her?” Lee wondered. “Lauten says they still haven’t registered half of the survivors.”

Dee leaned against him on the couch. “How about Natalia, after my mom?”

“Sounds good.” Lee agreed. “Did Lauten tell you about my perfect medical?”

“I wouldn’t call it perfect.” Dee corrected. “But I’ll be glad to have you back in CIC, even if it’s only for half shifts.”

Lauten had declared him fit for light duty, and she wouldn’t change that until he got his stitches out and put on some weight again. “I’m taking what I can get, right now. But what do we do with Natalia? We can’t leave her in here alone. She’ll wreck the place in a day.”

“They’re setting up a day-care near sickbay, I’m sure we can get a place for her there.” Dee told him. “And now you’ll go to bed. You’re still recovering.”

“Are you going to tuck me in?” Lee asked with a hopeful smile.

Dee rolled her eyes. “Not until you get those stiches out. Wouldn’t want to undo all of the doctor’s good work.”


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Domestic bliss BSG style

Being back in CIC felt good. He didn’t even mind the crews’ not very subtle stares at his hands. They would get used to it. And Lauten had already given him a date for the surgery in a couple of months. And hadn’t allowed for any discussion on it.

But a few faces were missing. They hadn’t made it off New Caprica and they would have to find replacements for them at one point. Lee and his father had already put the word out for anyone who wanted to join up, and if that didn’t produce enough people, they would have to hand out some promotions. Lee had a few ideas as to who that would be.

“Commander, the last ship just jumped.” Lt. Hoshi announced.

“Then bring out birds back.” Lee said and after a few moments the last of the alert vipers was back on-board and Pegasus followed the fleet. The Cylons were still on hot on their tail, but so far they had managed to avoid any major engagement.

But that wasn’t what had Roslin and the admiral worried. Only yesterday there had been a demonstration on the Gemenia demanding that the fleet return to Kobol and settle there. For some reason they didn’t seem to understand that there was no safe way to do that as long as the Cylons were after them. Maybe not even once they lost them. Roslin was still determined to find Earth and make a living there. Though Lee did wonder what they would do should they find it and the thirteenth tribe told them to get lost.

“Sir, we’re missing a ship.” Dee announced when the ship count was complete.

“Which one?” Lee wanted to know.

“The Aerilon II, again.” Dee reported. “They definitely jumped but are not here now.”

Lee sighed. “This is getting tiresome.” The ship had jumped to the wrong coordinated twice already.

“They need a new nav-computer, but there aren’t any to be head.” Dee pointed out.

“There must be a way to work around that.” Lee muttered. “Alright. Send a raptor back to the last coordinates, hopefully they’re already back there, if not, we start standard search procedure.” He ordered.

Lt. Hoshi nodded. “Yes, Sir.”

“Hold still, or I’ll cut you.” Dee admonished and put Lee’s head forward to cut the hair at his neck.

“I’m trying but it’s not so easy with her trying to claw my eyes out.” Lee pointed out as Natalia almost pocked one of his eyes out, giggling all the while.

Dee snorted. “The mighty commander brought low by a little girl.”

“Hey, those fingernails are long and sharp.” Lee pointed out. They had tried to cut them earlier today and that hadn’t gone down well. In fact they had given up after half an hour of cries and tears and decided to wait for a better opportunity for getting them back to a reasonable length.

“You know I could just have gotten an appointment with one of the barbers. We do have a few of them.” Lee said.

Dee ran her hand over his neck. “No, my mother always cut all our hair when we were kids, you’re not wasting time going to another ship when I’m perfectly capable of cutting your hair. There all done.”

“I’m sure one would have come over here.“ Lee said and sat up and pulled Natalia up on his lap while Dee cleaned up. She was leaning against him clearly getting tired. Now or never.

“Dee.” He whispered. “The nail scissors.”

Dee quickly grabbed them and knelt down before him and quickly cut the girl’s fingernails. Natalia whined a bit but let her do it peacefully enough. But when Dee tried her toenails she started crying again.

“Right, at least we got the fingers done, let’s call that a success.” Dee sighed.

Lee smiled and lifted Natalia over his head. His scars no longer troubling him now that the stitches were out. “You hear that? Done with this torture for today.”

Natalia giggled and waved her arms around.

Dee rolled her eyes. “You better put her into her bed, it’s late already.”

“Aunty Dee is a spoilsport.” Lee whispered to the girl as he got up to carry her to her bed.

As usual Natalia fussed a little when he put her down but dozed off after he made sure she had her little wooden dog in her hand.

“Spoilsport?” Dee asked when he joined her on the couch.

“We were having such great fun.” Lee pointed out and kissed her. “Though I can think of some other things the two of us can do to have fun.”

Dee smiled against him. “I’m sure you are. But are you up to it?”

Lee laid his forehead against hers. “I won’t break, I promise. We just have to be quiet.”

Dee chuckled. “I think we can manage that.”

Their lovemaking was a bit more desperate than Lee had expected but he had missed her like mad and apparently so had she. But it was also more intense and Lee wanted it to never stop. Not with her above him looking so beautiful.

Dee leaned down to kiss him deeply and roll them over so she was on her back, wrapping her legs around him to drive him deeper, her fingers running over his back only to stop dead when she encountered she scars on his back.

He hadn’t been exactly eager to show them to her. “It’s okay,” he whispered and kissed her. “I’m okay.”

“Frakking toasters.” Dee muttered and took his face in her hands. “They’re not allowed to get anywhere near you ever again.”

Lee smiled. “Sounds like a plan.”

“Hmm, it does,” Dee kissed him. “Enough of them. You have work to do here yet.”


	11. Chapter 11

The ringing of the phone woke them all in the middle of the night a few days later. While Lee reached for it, Dee climbed over him to go to Natalia to settle her down again who had been woken by the ringint too.

“Adama.” Lee muttered when he picked the receiver up. He listened to what Dr. Lauten had to say before replying. “I’m sorry you’ll have to repeat that, both her parents? But I found her with a woman on New Caprica.”

Dee came over to the bed to look at him curious, with Natalia in her arms.

“Alright, send the results up.” Lee said. “I’m going to have a chat with the admiral.”

“What’s going on?” Dee wanted to know when he had hung up.

Lee sighed. “You’re not going to believe this.”

The day had barely started and Bill Adama already had a very uncomfortable conversation with President Roslin, and the next one wouldn’t be any better.

Taking a deep breath, he knocked on the hatch. A moment later Helo opened.

“Admiral.” He said surprised and stepped aside to let Bill in. “Why are you here?”

“I’m here to tell you that you and Lt. Agathon are excused from duties for today.”

“Sir?” Sharon asked confused.

Bill took another deep breath. “Hera is alive.”

“What?” Helo exclaimed.

“Are you sure? Where is she? Is she alright?” Sharon asked in one breath.

“She’s fine. She’s in my quarters right now, with Apollo and Dee.” Bill replied.

“Wait.” Helo looked thoughtful. “That little girl Apollo rescued from New Caprica, that’s Hera? How long have you known that?”

“Three hours.” Bill replied. “President Roslin made the decision to…fake Hera’s death on her own, without informing me. She picked a adoptive mother and kept an eye on her on New Caprica. Hera was very well taken care of, you may rest assured.”

“That’s…” Sharon bit her lip, clearly holding some choice words in.

“I know, and I understand.” Bill told her. “But they’re waiting for you know, so you better get going.”

Sharon was the first one out of the hatch with Helo right on her heels. Bill followed at a more sedate pace. Admirals didn’t run, after all.

When he reached his quarters he found Sharon kneeling next to Hera, smiling while the girl showed her her wooden dog.

Helo stood over them, grinning like a fool while Lee and Dee sat on the couch with a packed bag next to them.

“So, how are we doing this?” Helo asked when he saw Bill come in. “I mean, she’s…she doesn’t know us.”

“She will soon enough.” Bill assured him. “The best thing to do is to all stay here for a bit and when she’s used to you, Lee and Dee will leave and then you take her to your quarters.”

“Right,” Helo sighed. “Thank you, Sir. You can’t imagine what this means to us.”

“Oh, I have a pretty good idea.” Bill said, thinking of Zak and how much he still missed him and what it would be like to have him back.

Helo nodded in understanding and then turned to Dee and Apollo. “Thank you for taking care of her. This means a lot.”

“It was our pleasure.” Lee replied with a smile. “Just make sure she has her dog when you put her to sleep.”

“We will.” Helo promised.

“What are you calling her?” Sharon asked from her spot on the floor where Hera was already sitting on her lap. “I mean, you didn’t know who she was…”

“Natalia.” Dee replied. “After my mother.”

Sharon kissed Hera’s hair. “Hera Natalia Agathon, sounds about right, doesn’t it?”

Helo nodded eagerly. “It sure does.”

Hera took to her parents quickly and Lee and Dee quietly slipped out when Hera started to get tired. The Agathons would take her back to their quarters soon. It was time for them to return to Pegasus.

“Did you notice that look Dad kept throwing our way?” Lee wanted to know as they headed down the corridor to the hangar.

“You mean the one that says to get busy and provide him with a permanent grandchild?” Dee asked, wrapping her arm around his waist.

Lee nodded and put his arm around her shoulder. “That’s the one.”

“No, didn’t see it.” Dee dead-panned. “Must have been your imagination.”

Lee chuckled. “Must have been then.”

“Besides, if he wants a grandchild, he can then be the one to get up in the middle of the night to feed it.” Dee informed him.

Lee groaned. “For the love of the gods, don’t give him any ideas.”

End

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finis and done. This was fun. Got to do it again sometimes soon. :-)


End file.
